Hello!! I’m Masa.

About Me!

My real name is Masahiro Saito from Fukuoka, Japan. I am 20 years old and a freshman student of Kyushu University taking up Civil Engineering.

We are 5 in the family and I am the eldest among my siblings. My father works in a company in Japan and my mother is a teacher.

As a freshman student, I learned very few things about being a civil engineer because we learned more about fundamental things like math and chemicals.

And this time, I wanted to learn more practical matters than studying on a desk so I decided to try the internship program. I am very excited because this experience is new for me. The itinerary is in Cebu City, Philippines.

Cebu City, Philippines

I arrived at Cebu City, Philippines last March 17, 2017 with Atsushi Shimizu. We went directly at IPPO Japanese Math. It is the company where we’ll do our internship.

IPPO Japanese Math

The company I’m in now is IPPO Japanese Math School. But, what is IPPO Japanese Math School?

In IPPO, they teach the students how to use Abacus.
Abacus is a calculating tool but never consumes electricity. In Japan, Abacus were used until electrical calculators were developed. Now, only few Japanese people use Abacus in their daily life, but most of them know how to use it because they have Abacus classes in their elementary schools.

I had an Abacus class but it was very long time ago so I forgot how to use it and I hope I can learn it again before I go back to Japan.

“I know Abacus is no longer useful for business scene BUT it’s really useful for education!!”

Now, here is what we do in our first day in IPPO.

First Day!

The scene: Taking “Calculation Quiz” with Ms Pinky & AtsushiCome up result of Calculation Quiz! I’m in 7th/50th in IPPO total Examinees!

In our first day in IPPO, we do calculation quiz to determine our mental skills. After the quiz, the teachers taught me and Atsushi how to do calculation using an Abacus.

Using an Abacus is completely different from the way I calculated math problems on paper.

The Scene: Free Trail Lesson with Atsushi.

Do you know that the carrying occurs not only in 10 but also 5?

It sounds very confusing but I think when we get use to using Abacus, we can calculate more efficiently. So I’m sure you can do it much faster.

In my next note, I will tell you how the students do calculations in an amazing speed. Also, I thought we can be more patient and accurate in solving because just one mistake in calculation can lead to a wrong answer.

It’s really like programming. Only one error makes it not work. Actually, I’m not good at programming because of many mistakes but if I had learned Abacus, I think I could adapt myself and enjoyed more. We can improve more abilities than I thought while learning Abacus.

I want to share this learning to the people in Cebu City. So, me and Atsushi are planning to hold an event to teach children how to use an Abacus. We will teach them also on how to make an origami. I wish many children will have an interest in learning Abacus.